Dictionary of the Tarot by Bill Butler
Review by Nina Lee Braden

Bill Butler has written an interesting and useful book on tarot, called
Dictionary of the Tarot in the United States. (Its original British
title is The Definitive Tarot.) Although this book is extremely
useful, its title is misleading. This is no dictionary of the tarot. (In
fact, I know of no dictionary of the tarot.) What this is is a highly
selective but useful cross reference of card meanings.

After a brief introduction and history of tarot, Butler takes each of
the seventy-eight Tarot cards, beginning with the Minor Arcana, and
describes the cards from several different decks. Butler also gives
excerpts from the works of a number of different tarot authors on these
cards. The book is illustrated in black and white, but no attempt has been
made for the illustrations to be encyclopedic in nature. The decks that
Butler describes are the Marseilles, Waite, Aquarian (Palladini), Crowley
(Thoth), and New Tarot for the Minor Arcana. In addition, for the Major
Arcana, he describes the 1JJ Swiss, Oswald Wirth, B.O.T.A., Bembo
(presumed Visconti artist), Gringonneur (an early-hand painted art deck),
Insight and Italian decks. The authors on tarot whom Butler quotes are
Paul Foster Case, Aleister Crowley, Alfred Douglas, Eden Gray, Paul Huson,
Stuart Kaplan, Gareth Knight, Frank Lind, S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Papus,
A.C. Thierens, A.E. Waite, Paul Christian, Golden Dawn (Israel Regardie),
Grimaud, Mouni Sadhu, Arland Ussher, Yitzhac Khan, and Mayananda.

Butler is not without his own opinion, and he also gives his own
interpretation for each card. In addition, the quotes that he has chosen
to use from each author are not given in context and are sometimes
misleading. Nonetheless, this is an extremely valuable resource for the
student of tarot. Butler also describes a few spreads and gives a chapter-
length glossary of Tarot terms and symbols at the end of his book.